BGHS.NEWS

Linie 4: "Dangerous myths: Vikings between pop culture and populism"



(Copyright: Sludge 9000)

Who were the Vikings really? Fearless warriors, explorers of foreign worlds or even the founders of equality and democracy? Hardly any other historical era is as present in our present day and at the same time as difficult to grasp as the so-called Viking Age. In her lecture "Dangerous Myths: Vikings between Pop Culture and Populism", Hannah von Legat addresses the question of what we can actually know about the Vikings, what we perhaps only think we know - and when such supposed knowledge becomes dangerous.

The lecture is part of the public lecture series Linie 4 - Neues aus der sozialwissenschaftlichen und historischen Forschung (Linie 4 - News from Social Science and Historical Research), organised by the BGHS in cooperation with the VHS Bielefeld, and traces how images of the Vikings have changed over the centuries and how strongly they were shaped by the needs and expectations of their time. This also applies to the present day: Vikings are more popular in popular culture today than they have been for a long time. But what image do the series, music videos and games actually convey? What story of masculinity, origin and originality is being told? In her lecture, Hannah von Legat invites us to scrutinise familiar ideas. She shows that the discussion about the Vikings is not (only) about the past, but also about our present: about desires, fears and identities that we so readily read into history.

Hannah von Legat is a historian and doctoral researcher at the BGHS. She is a research associate in a research project dealing with the topic of populism in Europe, and her doctoral thesis focuses on the question of how masculinity is produced and used for populist purposes in the reception of the Viking Age. In February 2025, she completed her Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies at the University of Münster. During her studies, she spent several semesters at Stockholm University.

The lecture will take place (in German) on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 at 6.15 pm in room 240 at the vhs Bielefeld, Ravensberger Park 1.